Apple Falls on Downgrade

Apple saw its shares fell on Tuesday as one Wall Street analyst called investors to sell their shares of the popular electronics maker.

Shares of the company dropped $3.05, or 1.96 percent on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange to close the day at $152.84.

Morgan Keegan analyst Tavis McCourt cut his rating on Apple to underperform citing worries that slowing consumer spending in a weak economy could hurt the firm's growth.

McCourt said he'd cut his rating based on mounting evidence of broad-based weakness in consumer technology spending in the U.S. and Europe. He also predicted that state and local budget issues are likely to have a negative impact on Apple's education-market sales.

We believe the company will still take [market] share in its Mac and iPhone product lines, but we expect PC industry growth expectations to dampen Apple's Mac growth as the year progresses, McCourt told clients.

The analyst referred to several examples as the basis for his downgrade.

He said the last major slowdown in PC sales happened in 2001, when U.S. employment began to decline. Weakness in the last two jobs reports suggests employment figures are on their way down again, he said.

He also believes more distribution of digital music without digital rights management software may somewhat erode the unique iPod [and] iTunes relationship, he said.

With regard to the education market, McCourt believes that though the company is gaining ground, Apple's education sales will be more challenged this year given state and local budget issues, and he says the company is likely to see a more stable component pricing environment.

A slowdown in education spending is likely this year, and could last perhaps one to two years if the last recession is any indication, McCourt said.

The rating represents the only bearish rating on Apple's stock, which mounted a recovery after a sharp sell-off earlier in the year.